How B.o.B. ended up as Iowa's most 'distinctive' artist

Feb. 26, 2014

B.o.B.

On the blog Musical Machinery, Paul Lamere posted a blog titled “Exploring regional listening preferences,” with a map titled “Distinctive artists by state.” Iowa ended up with “Nothin’ On You” rapper B.o.B. Huh? Lamere isn’t looking at the most popular artists that originated from certain states, but who is most popular in streaming. But B.o.B. isn’t the most popular artist being streamed (on services such as Spotify) in Iowa. He’s the 32nd most popular artist.

The way the ranking works is the states are also ranked by population. So maybe Journey is the most popular artist being streamed in Iowa (that’s just a random pick). But if Journey is already the fifth most popular artist being streamed in a more populous state, like New York, they get knocked out of contention for Iowa and any other smaller state. So while an artist like Bruce Springsteen being listed as the pick for New Jersey might seem to make sense, he’s actually the 23rd most streamed artist in that state. Basically, B.o.B. was the highest ranked artist that someone else didn’t like more than we did.

By the way, Iowa’s Stone Sour showed up as the top distinctive act for North Dakota. But they were really the state’s 47th pick.